Fraud alert – halt the N-Power ‘employment’ scheme immediately (1)

When I was doing my Youth Service in Calabar, Cross River State in 1991, I noticed a phenomenon by which young corpers like me did their primary assignment in more than one organization. There was the one organization where they had to report daily - if they cared enough - and others at which they merely showed up on salary day. I never went with them, but some of my friends will show up at the corper’s lodge with salaries from three or four places of primary assignment from time to time. It was the good old days, by Nigerian standards. NYSC paid us N550 per month and I supplemented with another N350 from the University of Calabar, where I worked at the Institute of Education under the headship of Professor Ralph Omojuwa who had then just returned from the US. My direct report was Mr Sam Udokang, in the office of the Registrar, Mrs Duke. Both Mrs Duke and Professor Omojuwa were very fine people physically and otherwise. I regarded them in awe.

And so it was that I was one of the few ‘mumus’ among the lot, who did not know how to play the game of ‘working’ in many places. Instead, I dedicated everything I had to this first job of mine and became a kind of darling to the institute. I followed them when they made their outreach travels to everywhere in Cross River and Akwa Ibom State. Akwa Ibom was a bit new then, and hadn’t come into its vast wealth. We would travel to places like Nsit Ubium, Ukanafun, Ikot Ansa, Ikot Osurua, Ikot Ekpene, Urue Ofong, Itu, Oron, Eket and the rest. And at the Cross River end, everywhere from Akamkpa to Odukpani, to Biase, Ugep, Obubra, Ikom and Ogoja. They almost retained me, but as a starry-eyed youth then I had to run back to Lagos in search of merchant bank work. They were the ones reigning then. I ended up at Citizens Bank, Ahmadu Bello Way in Victoria Island, and thus began a banking career. The rest as they say, is history.

Back to Calabar. Some of the harder corpers would not even bother showing up at any place of primary assignment. Maybe those were the ‘wise’ ones who already knew what Nigeria was about and that it was a joke. Some will lounge from one corper’s lodge to another, attending parties and pulling the chicks. Those were the big boys. Some just traveled back to Lagos or wherever it is they came from, altogether, and remained there until the service was over. While out of station, their salaries continued in the different places they were ‘serving’. Some will show up after a few months and go collect their arrears in different locations.

Thinking back these days, I realize this could be the beginning of the ghost workers’ syndrome. For if any of these guys had ended up in the civil service, there is NO WAY they would be satisfied with only one salary, no matter how far they rise. The water they drink has been polluted from the beginning. I don’t mean that it started in 1991. I think by the time we served, it had become commonplace for corpers not to show up in their places of primary assignment and so, the bureaucrats that we met would actually suggest that you could register your name and get paid without showing up, while you went elsewhere and got another job. The Nigerian civil servant has always been devious, and the apparent neglect of his plight, the frequent inability to pay his salaries, has only made him/her harder and more heartless. With my interactions with younger people these days, I now realize that the bureaucrats always structure themselves into the deals. If a corper today would be paid say N19,000, for not showing up at all, there is someone who takes at least N10,000 every month within the system. The system merely decayed more and more over the years, to its present level of abject dysfunction. As things stand, and with the level of desperation I’ve seen civil servants show, there will be greedy guys who would offer the corper just a tiny fraction, and sit on the rest these days.

There is always something to spend on in the civil service. Visit any agency - especially the ministries - on a Friday and you see them preparing for the weekend; travels for someone’s wedding or burial or oga’s birthday. Money needs to be raised. And we are talking of huge sums. If you attend those parties you’ll be afraid with how civil servants spend money. Many permanent secretaries need at least N1.5 million every weekend. Their list of hangers-on and corporate beggars are a mile long. Those coming behind them have dreams too. And thus became entrenched the culture of ghost workers. Some will say it is the ‘cleanest’ way of cashing out every month. The Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, made it a point to go after ghost workers since she was appointed, but painfully, we have not seen or heard of anyone sacked, prosecuted or jailed for benefiting from the fraud by which 30,000 ghost workers were discovered by her - after and in spite of the cleanup efforts of Madam Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. No names were even published. Shocking. At every state level they claim to be doing the same thing - even in the armed forces and police - but not a single beneficiary has been outed and made to pay from coolly pocketing so many billions based on fictitious names, dead people’s names and so on. My wager is that the racket is continuing and I even have a case on hand that needs be looked into.

The 200,000 new employment on N-Power

The President announced recently that by December 1, 2016, state governments will start contacting/deploying the 200,000 young Nigerian graduates employed under the N-Power scheme. These young Nigerians are to be deployed into teaching, health and agric extension jobs, among others. The idea is a nice one, even though I would have preferred more focus to be put on jobs in the environmental sector, and on jobs that secondary school graduates could do. In my book, ‘Change is Going to Come’, I had recommended something really close, which could take out at least 500,000 young people from the employment market, and unleash great productivity across Nigeria. My idea is that such an initiative should also be a veritable means of mobilizing young Nigerians behind the initiatives of government. What is more? This could have been done with great urgency 18 months ago. At least it could have been started. But half bread, they say, is better than none.

Alas, I have cause to be very worried about this N-Power employment of 200,000 Nigerians. I believe a great fraud is about to happen, and it is a fitting observation given how desperate Nigerians have recently become. From my little observation of a single page in the N-Power employment scheme, I believe some Nigerians are now so angry with the whole Nigerian project, they are willing and able to do any and everything to continue milking the system, right under President Buhari’s nose. If the plans of these bad guys are successful, they will be the ones pocketing MOST of the disbursements made to these fortunate N-Power employees. That would be N4.6billion monthly, if those 200,000 people are paid N23,000 each as promised by government. Of course some of the employees are genuine, but come with me and see the anomaly. More next week.